Milking stations are well known in the art. For example, one may consult the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy farming or a corresponding user's manual such as the “WestfaliaSurge for milking rotary parlor” (see FIGS. 4-7, for example).
Indeed, it is well known in the art that for several years now, cows having been treated or milked on mechanical rotary milking stations, also known as “carousels” or “parlors”, similar to what is done in a production line. Typically, cows are treated by lots of about 20 to 100 cows, and in some cases, up to about 200 cows. With a load reaching approximately 3,500 pounds per cow on a very imposing carousel, several technological challenges present themselves in the conception of a new assembly which is meant to be as simple and as functional as possible.
Concerning existing technologies, it is known that a typical carousel will be generally made of three (3) main sections. Firstly, there is the structure which is intended to receive the overall assembly, and which is generally made of concrete, and there is also a fixed base of the carousel, which is intended to receive a rotary section. Therefore, and secondly, there is also a rotary system which is typically made of wheels, and thirdly, and lastly, there is the rotary section of the carousel.
Generally, a milking carousel and the structure which supports it are typically made of several I-beams, which are curved in order to form a circle in the most accurate manner possible. A point of reference is then installed at the center of the working site and the structure is assembled on location by positioning oneself with respect to the reference point. For example, FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a base, wheels and an upper portion of the rolling system according to the prior art.
Once the structure has been assembled, a casing is built on the carousel. This casing will be filled with concrete to form a complete and rigid structure which is capable of supporting the weight of all the cows to be treated with the milking station. For example, FIG. 2 shows a carousel before the installation of reinforcements (bars, etc.) and pouring of concrete according to the prior art.
Between each of two portions of the milking station, the rotation is ensured by the presence of rollers, which are typically evenly spaced. The rotational axle of each roller ends up in a central point, which is the same as the center of the curved I-beams constituting each of the sections (i.e. base and carousel). For example, FIGS. 3a and 3b show different views of wheels constituting a carousel according to the prior art.
The carousel is then driven by a system generating a force between the lower structure (i.e. fixed base) and the upper structure (i.e. rotary section of the carousel). For example, FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of a driving system assembly according to the prior art, whereas FIG. 9 shows an example of a drive installed on an existing rotary parlor, and FIG. 10 shows an example of a drive installed on an existing rotary parlor according to the prior art.
Because the above-described manner of designing, assembling and operating a milking station is considered to be the “standard” in this industry, several problems and drawbacks are associated to this conventional manner of doing things.
For example, several drawbacks are associated with regards to the precision of the assembled structure. Namely, the beams cannot be machined to perfection. Furthermore, there is no room for adjustment. Moreover, the initial tolerances or errors of the raw material (e.g. steel beams) are initially very high. Furthermore, the tolerances are very important. In addition, further to the dimensions of the initial material, the assembling thereof adds its proper degree of errors or tolerances. Furthermore, the tolerances (i.e. errors) from the lower sections add themselves to those of the upper ones which are installed thereon, doubling the uncertainty of the overall assembly. Furthermore, the bed does often not rest centered, or is often not stable. Even during the assembling of the sectional beams forming the carousel, it is difficult to roll and curve the rails in a constant manner.
Other drawbacks associated to the precision of the assembled structure reside in the fact that during delivery, several beams do not end up having the dimensions that they had originally when coming out of the manufacturing plant. Indeed, it is well known in the art that transportation affects the curvature of beams. Furthermore, the assembling of structures via corresponding beams is very tedious and there is always a lot of room for error because of the intricate nature of the assembly. Furthermore, the dimensions of the beams and corresponding tolerances or errors add to the complication of the problem in that several rollers do not support a corresponding load when necessary, due to possible deviations in the carrousel and under considerations.
Other drawbacks and inconveniences associated to the aforementioned conventional manner of building milking stations also reside in the alignment of the rollers. Indeed, the rollers are not guided to perfection and are urged to continually come out of their course of travel. Furthermore, and typically, a roller will tend to flatten itself and its axle is generally not maintained centered with the center of the carousel. Moreover, by virtue of its conception and operation, the carousel always is urged to go in one way which is not a natural direction, thus creating a lot of mechanical resistance and wear, thereby not only increasing energy required to keep it in motion, but also very often, generating unwanted noise which is undesirable for the cows to be milked with the rotary milking station.
Other drawbacks and inconveniences associated to the above-described conventional milking stations reside in the loading of the rollers. Indeed, when the loads are not distributed correctly, several rollers no longer support the load, leaving the other rollers to pick up an additional load which further contributes to significant problems of wear (inconsistency and a much higher load per wheel if the distribution is not adequate). This substantial problem considerably increases maintenance frequencies and corresponding associated costs.
Other drawbacks and inconveniences associated to the above-described conventional milking stations reside in the fact that more engagement power is required to compensate for the drag created by non-optimal cooperation between base and carrousel.
Other drawbacks and inconveniences associated to the above-described conventional milking stations reside in the fact that the installation and construction of a typical milking parlor on a customer's site according to the prior art is really long, taking several weeks and even months. This long installation time creates important problems (e.g. downtime, etc.) and loss of production for the customer waiting for a milking method transition.
Other drawbacks and inconveniences associated to the above-described conventional milking stations reside in the fact that adjustment and maintenance of the driving and/or wheel systems is difficult and needs a complete shutdown of the overall system for a long period of time. In some cases, it is often impossible for customers to take care of such adjustment and maintenance, and thus, specialized assistance or equipment is required, along with unwanted associated costs.
Hence, in light of the aforementioned, there is a need for an improved system which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the aforementioned prior art problems.